Editorials

Assange should face the music

August 21, 2012

Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks and fugitive from Swedish justice, made a speech from the balcony of Ecuador's embassy in London, where he is seeking asylum, calling on President Obama and the United States to end its "witch hunt" of WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks, of course, created an international stir by publishing on the internet hundreds of thousands of sensitive and secret U.S. diplomatic communications it had received illegally from a U.S. serviceman.

The leaked communications contained reports of backroom deals and frank assessments of foreign leaders and their policies. The release served no other purpose, it seems, than to embarrass the U.S. and sour relationships among nations.

Assange, in the meantime, is seeking refuge from Swedish authorities who want to question him about two women who claimed Assange assaulted them during a trip to Sweden. He's been on the lam for the past two years, claiming the Swedish charges are being orchestrated by the U.S. as a plot to get him in front of a U.S. court.

We think Assange should do the right thing and turn himself in to Swedish authorities to face the music and quit pretending he is being persecuted from doing something "noble."